Visual Programming for the WSR-88D Common Operations & Development Environment

The National Weather Service (NWS) Office of Systems Development is sponsoring the creation of the Common Operations and Development Environment (CODE) for the WSR-88D. CODE is an Applications Programming Interface (API) and services layer which will provide algorithm developers a consistent and well engineered access to the new Open Systems Radar Product Generation (ORPG) computer. It is envisioned that CODE will greatly facilitate new algorithm development and minimize validation testing and integration to allow the leading edge of meteorological science to reach the field at a much more rapid pace than currently exists.

Use of CODE will require a high level of proficiency in programming. Further, programming within the ORPG environment, even with the services of the CODE API, will require considerable knowledge of the structure of the ORPG software. The NWS is currently investigating the use of Visual Programming Tools (VPT) to facilitate algorithm development on the ORPG. The VPT will be an environment which will allow a much larger part of the scientific community to construct, rapidly prototype, and test WSR-88D algorithms by providing pretested modules in a familiar windows, ‘drag and drop' environment. This paper will describe the visual programming environment from conceptual design to the generation of a modified or new WSR-88D algorithm.